Mississippi College is home to a variety of personalities and each one tackles college in different ways. From a club or social tribe officer to a history club member, every person here on this campus brings something different to the table. Today, I'm going to give you a peek into what the life of an athlete looks like on MC's campus.

Athletes in particular live the college life a little bit differently than students who don’t participate in sports. According to Kaleb Sahlie, a freshman member of the track and cross country team, the many aspects include balancing time and having a solid work ethic, but the best part of all is the team.

Participating in college athletics provides you with an immediate family. There are people a couple years older than you who have been through it all before and people your age who are doing everything alongside you. Your team has your back in every practice and every competition, and that makes all the effort worthwhile. That, and of course the bragging rights of saying you were a college athlete.

It’s a huge commitment to be a member of a college sports team. For cross country and track specifically, practices or meets are six days out of the week and most practices take place bright and early at 5:30am, 6am on a lucky morning. Traveling to close events on a charter bus or flying to more distant ones is a blast, but it also takes up a lot of time. Add a class schedule on top of that already busy week and it becomes vital to know how to manage your time.

Clearly, time management is a crucial lesson to learn as a college athlete, but it is one that can be applied to all areas of life. Discipline is a similar virtue that hours spent in the weight room and on the competition field develops in a person. The challenge of contributing to a team and maintaining your studies strengthens your character in pretty unique ways.

Being a college athlete keeps your mind always at work, from thinking about eating and sleeping habits to focusing on grades in the classroom. It's far more of a job than playing sports in high school is, but it is unbelievably worth it. So here's to those with the passion to compete collegiately so the rest of us have a team to support.